Smashing pumpkins

TTWC 2008.20 with butternut

TTWC 2008.21 and my new favourite knitting spot

TSS donated a large bag of the recycled handspun bought for $2 at Vinnies. It's knitting up beautifully on 5.5mm needles and 72 stitches.

Mad about Saffron

Tuesday is brought to you by the colour - YELLOW!


From the bottom - yellow teardrop tomatoes (and a rogue rouge one) the first to actually bloody ripen. They've been in for months! And they're in my favourite yellow enamel colander.

In the middle - bumper crop of yellow squash - they've been the marrow of (only) choice for the last month and will be going for at least another couple of weeks.

At the top - the swiss cheese bag. This has been finished for ages but I kept forgetting to post about it and then there was the fluff problem.


The pattern is Spring Green Bag (Ravelry link) by the lovely Lisa Ashton from Yarn issue 8. The yarn is Alafos Flos - a mohair wool blend.


The knitting bit was fun and the attached i-cord around the top of the bag and the i-cord handles not dire at all - the thought of metres and metres of i-cord when the bag was all knitted was worse than actually doing it. Lisa was very encouraging - particularly when it looked exactly like a string singlet for a Dalek. Apparently it was meant to look like that at that stage. Handy to know.


I do have issues with the felting process. Firstly, I had too much water in machine but only worked that out after a couple of cycles (I didn't keep filling the machine, I just put the wash cycle back a few times - all Canberrans can now stop dialling the dob-in-a-water-waster number and put down the 'phone). There was some felting but not as much or as evenly as I would prefer. Instead of just doing it all again later with less water, I kept adding stuff to be washed to enhance the agitation process. Great idea except that that one of the items I added was a chocolate brown bath towel. This time the felting worked pretty well, but was still a bit uneven and the brown fibres of the towel had felted to the bright yellow. At this point I removed the bag and put it a corner of the laundry to dry, think about it's behaviour and consider it's options.

Time passes *wubba, wubba, wubba*.

I'm about to do a white load in the machine. "Aha!" I think to myself - "Maybe if I put the bag with the brownish patches in with a white load the brownish patches will rub off ". Those of you with more experience of these things are, by now, way ahead of me and probably pointing at the screen and laughing. Yes. The browny bits were still there and have been joined by lots of white fluff (from the hand-towels added for agitation) and a couple of small white feathers. I guess one of my feather and down pillows is moulting and these came from a pillowcase. *Sigh*. The good news is, by this stage I'm happier with the eveness and degree of felting - either that or I've been so worn down by the process am willing to turn a blind eye. The bag goes back into it's corner to dry and consider it's behaviour again.

More time passes *wubba, wubba, wubba*.

So on Saturday I drag it out of the naughty corner and attack it with a disposable razor. Quite a bit of the fluff came off but by no means all. From a distance it's a sunny shade of yellow, up close it's a bit muddier and flaked with dandruff.

It's still a great pattern, I'd recommend it as a fun knit and swings off the bird feeder well.

Top that

Beanie 2007.127

My third project for the Yarn Magazine KAL.

Sarah Golder's Sock Topper from Yarn, issue 8 - the current issue. The yarn was left over from a pair of socks and was exactly the 25g called for - hooray, no more scraps! Bummer, I've got 9g left.The hat's very sweet and I'll be able to use those 9g somewhere, I guess.

Couldn't resist photographing it on my favourite hydrangea which Dad propagated from a cutting off his, now deceased, plant. Originally it came from a cutting taken from Mrs Norris, also deceased, the mother of a family friend. The glorious rain of the last few weeks has made the garden explode with blooms.

TTWC Jr 2007.125. Recycled jumper yarn on a 5.5mm needle.

There's a LOT of this yarn and it's so bright and gorgeous for kids. Another few of these on the way.

I don't know what the bush is called but like the yarn it is pretty and plentiful. It must have been easy to propagate because there are many in the back yard.

It's been a while since there was any beanie action on this blog. I spent most of the last week knitting gift scarves (photos and pattern tomorrow), but managed to fit in a couple of beanies and a wee bit of sockage as well.

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 ...

TTWC 2007.123 with geranium, or is it a pelargonium? Not sure that I really care all that much - it's pretty.
Cleckheaton Landscape

As much as a day off is always welcome, I rather missed being at work for Melbourne Cup Day.

Melbourne Cup Day is a very social day at work. Public interaction is usually lovely - even better than Christmas Eve because there's less stress all round. We wear silly hats and bring the TVs out and staff and public alike stop and watch the race together.

Because we are open to the public, we don't have a luncheon and indulge in alcoholic beverages in the afternoon like some workplaces. We usually have a breakfast (still no alcohol) and we have sweeps. The guy who normally does our sweeps retired this year and as I had been his assistant in previous years, I was all set to be bookie this year.

As it was, I gardened for a couple of hours this morning before taking the girls on a variation of one of our favourite walks through Westbourne Woods and having lunch at the Oaks Brasserie which is dog friendly and even has a dog menu. I did not buy the girls a lunch, they had a taste of mine and a drink of water instead. They also got lots of attention from other diners.

The Shopping Sherpa declined to join us on our walk, being very occupied in producing things today, so we gathered some supplies and dropped in on her and Nibbs for afternoon tea. I got to see the world's smallest knitted cupcake and we unloaded bargains on each other.

A perfect day except for Peggy frothing at the mouth and emptying the contents of her stomach onto the driver and driver's seat of the car on the way home. She's fine now which is more than I can say for the upholstery. I suspect she ate one of TSS's mushrooms. Stupid dog.

A rose by any other name...

These are identical twins in Jigsaw sock yarn by Heirloom on 2mm dpns. Standard, cuff down pattern.

Cast on for me, Mum decided they should be for her. The knitting has been finished for weeks, I just hadn't got around to grafting the toe. Ms Spider to the rescue, and now they are done. Mum will receive them on Wednesday - they've gone to Queensland for a wedding.

And yes, I do need to deadhead the roses.

Managed to hit myself in the head with doors, twice, yesterday. I spent the late afternoon and early evening on the couch being ministered to by my nieces. A VERY slight concussion, apparently, but I was ok to go home to sleep.

Rosie had her revenge for the bow incident by throwing up in bed, my bed, at 5.30 this morning. Thanks, Rose.

Something For Kate OR When Flowers meet Fibre

I promised Kate to take her on a tour of Floriade this year, so Spidey and I visited on Sunday to check out the Alice Springs Beanie Exhibition with a view to a Picknit, and also to meet up with Helen Rippin - the dye-diva of Waratah Fibres (sadly, no website or blog).

For foreign readers, Floriade is Canberra's annual spring festival. Bulbs en masse together with garden displays and other activities. This year's theme is Aussie Myths and Icons. There was a Yowie, Kate, but no Sasquatch ;). I didn't photograph many of the myths and icons, mostly because the interpretative signage was pretty bad and we couldn't decipher some of the displays.

Flowers.

Myths and Icons

Possibly the Sydney Opera House made from bamboo?

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (also home of Australian Rules Football - the posts are the Aussie Rules goal posts)

Dunny complete with red back spider

Ute

Fibre

Shark Bite Hat

Tea Party Hat

Evil women bearing fibre (Helen Rippin on left, Spidey on right)

Large bag of dye-diva fibre. I only bought 50g - promise.

Daisy display which depicts sheep

Actual sheep (Spidey has dibs on this one)

A TTWC makes a pilgrimage

Pear shaped

TTWC Jr. 2007.96 with Manchurian Pear blossom.

This is yarn George donated at the Harlot Happening in March. There was just enough left for a TTWC Jr. I got a bit silly with the umbilical i-cord.

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance

TTWC 2007.93

The last of the Jet that Georgie donated, resting on the rosemary hedge.

I had a lovely time this afternoon with some of my favourite knit bloggers and cr***eter at Georgie's this afternoon. We welcome her to the Sisterhood of the Sock. Those sausage rolls were to die for, George - thank you.

Rosemary is one of my favourite herbs -it's so robust. Potato wedges baked with salt and rosemary; chicken breast marinated in a little oil, lemon juice and rosemary and grilled; lamb roasted with garlic and rosemary.

I planted a rosemary hedge at the highest point in the yard, behind the rose garden in the south west corner. I wanted this to be my vegie patch, Dad wanted roses. I lost.

When Dad trimmed the hedge last autumn I found the clippings on the trailer with the rest of the rubbish to go to the tip. I rescued a green shopping bag full and took it to work to share with my colleagues. Our tearoom smelled divine for a week.

The neighbour behind has his potting bench in that corner and I can tell when he's been potting because the dogs smell of rosemary from trying to get through to "help" him.

This morning I succumbed to the latest Knit Simple which has several designs I like, and the most recent Knit 'n' Style which despite an unfortunate tendency to novelty yarn, has some great patterns this issue; patterns that will fit if I knitted them. Excellent. I'm taking them on a trip to Young tomorrow. No, not to the fabulous Wool Room Country Store, one of my fave yarn stores, but to watch my nieces and nephew play soccer. After tomorrow's 400k round trip, I do not wish to drive again for some time.

Welcome to fellow Seven Things Spring (or September for the not so stuff-challenged), Tinking Bell, Five Ferns Fibreholic, Ferg, and Jay who shouted out on TSS's blog.

And then my heart with pleasure fills

TTWC 2007.91

Finally the jonquils flower en masse and I missed their burgeoning. Cruel fate!

These are not ordinary jonquils.

When my parents bought the house next door to them as an investment property in the early 80s, Mum was given some jonquil bulbs by a friend. Dad hates bulbs so Mum secretly planted them in the garden next to the front porch of the house next door and pretended they were there all along. Dad knew they hadn't been there at all but upheld the fiction. They were always known as Mum's flowers and in late winter and early spring she filled small vases with them for the house.

20 years pass. *insert wavy time warp image*

Almost exactly 3 years ago, my brother knocked down the house next door and built a big new house for his family. I moved into my house just around the corner at about the same time. At my brother's insistence most of the garden was retained during the building process but the plants closest to the house were to be bulldozed too.

The week before the bulldozers moved in, my brother, his family, his father-in-law and I spent a weekend salvaging what plants we could. The jonquils were just getting ready to bloom when I dug them up and placed them in one of the polystyrene broccoli boxes we begged from the markets. Some I planted in my garden straight away, others stayed in the polystyrene boxes until the next autumn when Dad planted them throughout the new beds we had just created in my back yard.

This is the first year I've had a decent display and they are lovely. I take Mum a small bunch every few days.

Dad arrived home from his Trans-Siberian odyssey this morning. When I mentioned the jonquils had finally bloomed and were now nearly over, he suggested I plant some daffodils as well so I'd get a longer spring display next year. "Bulbs are so cheerful; I don't know why your mother doesn't have some", he informed me. I haven't had the heart to tell Mum.

And to those who suggested I weed there acreages while I was about it, I have two words for you: GET FLOCKED (preferably of those little miniature sheep; they're bound to keep the weeds at bay).

Hand-me-downs and a sling-shot brain

TTWC 2007.88 with comfrey

Comfrey is fantastic for accelerating compost breakdown and a potent herbal remedy for the treatment of bruises and broken bones. It's also a bugger to get out of the garden. This plant was cut back to the base 6 weeks ago. It's grown 2 foot in the middle of a Canberra winter!

The herb and vegie garden is due for a shake up soon. I'll pick up some manure later in the week to dig through the beds. Mum has promised me a rhubarb plant and it will soon be time to plant the early summer veg and new herb seedlings.

I won't be needing any curly parsley though - my three plants have quite literally taken over the bed. There has been a little die-back, but not much.

TTWC 2007.89 with parsley garnish.

Mrs Jordan, our home ec. teacher, had us garnish every dish with parsley - even junket. I hate junket to this day. I forgot to add the rennet and it came out like a boiled vanilla milkshake. I was made to drink it, after removing the parsley garnish. Hideous.

All blooming life you're feeding

Thanks for the welcome back - it was lovely to hear from you all.

I'm part through some blogs but will admit to reading just the last few posts of most. Many of you I will catch up with in the next week or so and I'm looking forward to that very much.

I've decided that weeding is rather like exercise - dire but necessary and can only be accomplished if I trick myself into it. Also both activities usually end up with me in pain and whingeing.

So the last couple of days have been spent hanging out the washing and plucking a weed or two along the way; hauling bags from the car to the house and back again etc. Net result is I'm about a 2/3 the way through the back garden and 1/3 the front. Tomorrow should see another 1/3 of the front done because I've bought some pansies and seaside daisies for a bed that is currently weed infested.

This morning I took the last crop of TTWC's for a photoshoot and weeded most of the back garden as a result. See - tricked myself into both weeding and exercise.

TTWC 2007.83-87

Taph the Stash Slayer

8am, ACT Heritage Library, Canberra

Got some seriously odd looks walking to work this morning. What is so strange about a woman walking and knitting a beanie? Nothing. Then I caught my reflection in a window. The 15mm needles sticking out the top of my backpack would look pretty strange, if not downright menacing, to the Buffy generation.

Time Thief Watch Cap 2007.02

7am, Herb Garden, Pearce

All out of the usual 12ply, so I've started on the 8ply stash. Slower to knit and I've had to rejig the pattern, but it still serves the purpose. Not so sure about the decreases in this version - will have to play with the pattern some more.

Thunder in my heart

The forecast rain for NY Eve turned out to be a storm of reasonable proportions: hail, rain (there is a tide mark on my back door 3" up), high winds.

We'd just sat down to dinner with the in-laws (sigh) when it hit. My brother went out to check the block of flats he caretakes and came home past my place. The lovely gum tree in my front yard had divested itself of two branches, the biggest of which is 6m long, over the road. He dragged it back onto my place.

I wonder if the relevant authorities will deem it time to trim this tree. It's twice the height of my house and has horizontal branches (the ones that drop) and dead ones, too. We asked them to come 12 months ago - about the time a man two suburbs away was killed by a branch that fell from a tree just like mine. These trees are not known as widow-makers for nothing. Yes, the front yard is still in the nursery stage is progressing but slowly due to the drought.

In knitting news, I finished the teal and cream beanie with the in-laws last night and knitted through midnight on the red and green one. It's the basic Time Thief Watch Cap pattern. Instead of plain stripes, I played with random slip stitches - so much fun.